Cowboys hire Nolan as DC

[Jakuvious]

Gotta love mediocre retreads. 

[N4L]

7 hours ago, Shanedorf said:

That's true of most DC's.
Vic Fangio is a smart and talented DC and he's been fired for sucking 9 times so far in his career
Wade Phillips has a similar resume: lather, rinse, repeat.
Wade sucked so bad in Dallas that they fired him. Then he landed in Denver with all- world talent and he was back to being a top DC again.

Its also really hard to maintain a "good" defense.
Injury, attrition, FA, worse draft slot and offenses getting a read on you all conspire to make it really tough to maintain a top performing unit

Except Vic is a good play caller, gameplaner, and most importantly, a good communicator/teacher. 

Mike Nolan is none of those things. He consistently got out coached. He never made in game adjustments. He publicly stated that his scheme was good and that the players need to play better. That's not how an NFL coach should act when you have a winning percentage around .300. He called out Alex Smith for not being "tough" in front of the team when Alex had a GRADE 1 SEPARATION in his throwing shoulder because Nolan knew he was on the hot seat. 

He was a good first step in what eventually led us to harbaugh because he did help change the culture a little bit, but he was never a defensive mind that is going to lead a top unit imo. 

That could have changed in the last 12 years, but I laugh at this hire, as a niners fan 

[Hukos]

I remember Mike Nolan's days as a DC in Atlanta under Mike Smith.

When he had an elite pass rusher in Abraham, his defense looked great! When Abe was hurt, it looked awful (see: the 49ers comeback in the 2012 NFC Championship game). In 2013 and 2014, we had two of the worst defenses in the history of our franchise under his stewardship, though you could definitely argue that the cupboard was pretty barren in terms of talent. But really, that 2014 defense under Nolan was legitimately one of the worst defenses in NFL history by DVOA. My thoughts on Nolan are negatively colored because of that.

[Kiwibrown]

10 hours ago, Shanedorf said:

That's true of most DC's.
Vic Fangio is a smart and talented DC and he's been fired for sucking 9 times so far in his career
Wade Phillips has a similar resume: lather, rinse, repeat.
Wade sucked so bad in Dallas that they fired him. Then he landed in Denver with all- world talent and he was back to being a top DC again.

Its also really hard to maintain a "good" defense.
Injury, attrition, FA, worse draft slot and offenses getting a read on you all conspire to make it really tough to maintain a top performing unit

Agreed a defense can be solid, but of they have a few bad dbs they are cooked 

[Bobby816]

15 hours ago, 49erurtaza said:

You give Mike Nolan talent he's a good enough DC. Luckily Dallas has talent. 

Not in there secondary

[SweetFancyMoses]

10 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

I think the Rooney Rule is kind of dumb, but Richard I think would make a good coach. 

We shouldn't need affirmative action or the Rooney Rule,  but in a league where 70% or more of the players are African American and I believe there are 2 out of 32 head coaching positions occupied by an African American, the NFL needs to at least appear they are giving African American coaches a fair opportunity.  You can say times are different now, but I don't remember teams pushing Josh Allen to workout at TE/WR the way they tried to get Lamar Jackson.

[SweetFancyMoses]

9 minutes ago, Bobby816 said:

Not in there secondary

They were last year.   The whole D under Richard sucked hard this year, except Robert Quinn.

[SteelKing728]

11 minutes ago, SweetFancyMoses said:

We shouldn't need affirmative action or the Rooney Rule,  but in a league where 70% or more of the players are African American and I believe there are 2 out of 32 head coaching positions occupied by an African American, the NFL needs to at least appear they are giving African American coaches a fair opportunity.  You can say times are different now, but I don't remember teams pushing Josh Allen to workout at TE/WR the way they tried to get Lamar Jackson.

Nepotism runs rampant in this league. Granted, that's a teams/individual's right, but with less of that then i seriously doubt we'd even need the Rooney Rule.

But, put into perspective, RR actually isn't all that stupid, its just unnecessary I believe. Nepotism can be incredibly stupid or absolutely brilliant depending on the situation (80-20 stupid though)

[SteelKing728]

I'll leave it at that. Was Nolan considered a big time hire for SF back in 2005?

[Calvert28]

58 minutes ago, SweetFancyMoses said:

We shouldn't need affirmative action or the Rooney Rule,  but in a league where 70% or more of the players are African American and I believe there are 2 out of 32 head coaching positions occupied by an African American, the NFL needs to at least appear they are giving African American coaches a fair opportunity.  You can say times are different now, but I don't remember teams pushing Josh Allen to workout at TE/WR the way they tried to get Lamar Jackson.

They did for Matt Jones and he went from being QB of Arkansas to WR of a bunch of NFL teams. 

[ronjon1990]

1 hour ago, SweetFancyMoses said:

We shouldn't need affirmative action or the Rooney Rule,  but in a league where 70% or more of the players are African American and I believe there are 2 out of 32 head coaching positions occupied by an African American, the NFL needs to at least appear they are giving African American coaches a fair opportunity.  You can say times are different now, but I don't remember teams pushing Josh Allen to workout at TE/WR the way they tried to get Lamar Jackson.

Mike Tomlin, Anthony Lynn, Brian Flores are current HCs. 

Prior, Marvin Lewis had some of the best job security seen until Jason Garrett's 2019. Todd Bowles (twice), Vance Joseph, Steve Wilkes, and Hue Jackson were HCs until this past season and only aren't because they failed. 

Kris Richard, Eric Bieniemy, Raheem Morris, Byron Leftwich, and David Shaw have all had their names brought up (most of whom I highly doubt are only to satisfy the RR). 

Ron Rivera bounced back immediately. Robert Saleh is getting his name tossed about. 

I agree, we shouldn't need affirmative action. The Rooney Rule, however, is hardly necessary anymore. Minority HC candidates abound and are being given shots (and like all, some succeed, some do not). 

As for the Lamar Jackson thing- many people made that argument. Josh Allen had raw talent and size that screamed future QB much like Kaepernick, much like Tyree Jackson, much like others. Lamar has a slightly awkward frame for a QB and, arguably, might actually have been more successful at WR or RB than QB. Allen can be plugged into a traditional offense with his skill set. Lamar, thus far, has had to have the entire offense tailored to his style and may or may not have a long-term shelf life (we've seen this scenario be successful and fail). 

Matt Jones, Tim Tebow, Logan Thomas, Blake Bell, Taysom Hill, Antwan Randle-El, Terell Pryor, Ryan Tannehill (in college), Hines Ward, Jeff Driskel (for a time), Julian Edelman, Brad Smith, Josh Cribbs, Scott Frost, Eric Crouch- the list gets extensive. All of these guys played QB in college, and, with the exception of Tannehill, were asked to play other positions that they could be successful at in a way that helps the entire team out. It happens quite often. 

 

[ronjon1990]

13 hours ago, Mazrimiv said:

So the first new staffs being put together are HC Rivera with Del Rio at DC and HC McCarthy with Nolan at DC.  Has the run on hot new HC candidates come to an end?

Nope. Rhule, Riley, a few other guys are still being promoted as possible HCs. A few names should be up and coming in a year or two (Leftwich, Moore, a couple others come to mind). 

Washington was going to be a tough sell to any hot new candidate, given Snyder and the management's issues. They needed someone with experience. 

As for Dallas, I can't believe McCarthy was their first choice. Something tells me enough came down the back channel that told Jurrah he wasn't getting the shiny new toy he envisioned getting and pulled the trigger on a reputable name to save face for dragging his feet on Garrett. 

[Shanedorf]

1 hour ago, ronjon1990 said:

As for Dallas, I can't believe McCarthy was their first choice.

McCarthy beat Garrett multiple times, including with Matt Flynn at QB when the Packers were down 26-3 at halftime and came roaring back to steal a win.
McCarthy has had immense success in Jerry's Palace, including a Super Bowl win and multiple playoff victories over the cowboys. McCarthy is 3-0 in that building in the playoffs. The contrast vs JG had to be startling for Jerruh and Jones actually said he didn't want a shiny "new" toy because those guys take time to get up to speed

Jerry believes he has the roster to win now and so it was a forgone conclusion that he'd get a veteran coach.
That Garrett and McCarthy have the same agent just made it an easier transition. It was only the media spin that this thing was "dragging out" , in reality Jones knew what he wanted all along and as a FA coach, McCarthy was available for conversations since last winter

Jones has been looking for a new HC for at least a year now, its not like the "search" began last week.

[Matts4313]

13 minutes ago, Shanedorf said:

1 hour ago, ronjon1990 said:

As for Dallas, I can't believe McCarthy was their first choice.

McCarthy beat Garrett multiple times, including with Matt Flynn at QB when the Packers were down 26-3 at halftime and came roaring back to steal a win.
McCarthy has had immense success in Jerry's Palace, including a Super Bowl win and multiple playoff victories over the cowboys. McCarthy is 3-0 in that building in the playoffs. The contrast vs JG had to be startling for Jerruh and Jones actually said he didn't want a shiny "new" toy because those guys take time to get up to speed

Jerry believes he has the roster to win now and so it was a forgone conclusion that he'd get a veteran coach.
That Garrett and McCarthy have the same agent just made it an easier transition. It was only the media spin that this thing was "dragging out" , in reality Jones knew what he wanted all along and as a FA coach, McCarthy was available for conversations since last winter

Jones has been looking for a new HC for at least a year now, its not like the "search" began last week.

All of this is pretty accurate. And according to those "in the know", Dallas and Jason have known they were going to split since before the year was over. Jerry allegedly had Lincoln Riley over for dinner back in November. 

I think McCarthy was pretty high on the list. 

[AnAngryAmerican]

I think with a Very talented roster that cannot, for salary cap reasons, be kept in its current form for long, the Joneses were looking for stability, maturity and experience. Assemble a staff of veterans who have coached a lot of football in their lives and hope they can get the most out of the roster. With Jerry’s age and the roster he has assembled, there isn’t time for someone to learn on the job or spend a few off seasons acquiring a bunch of new players to fit some new-age, “revolutionary” scheme. 

In light of all of that, I think the McCarthy hire was a good move by the Cowboys. Same goes for Nolan.